40

26

46.9

45.1

45.5

.599

.618

66.5%

28.7%

95.1%

0.1%

2.1%

If baseball doesn’t work out for Yoenis Cespedes he can always turn to long-distance peanut vending.

2

35

33

36.6

36.1

35.2

.568

.548

18.0%

59.8%

77.9%

-3.5%

1.4%

Look at the Dodgers lineup and ask yourself the following question: how is a $200+ million team batting Dee Gordon and Justin Turner 1-2 in the lineup?

3

36

29

35.8

40.4

40.4

.567

.587

29.6%

54.3%

83.9%

0.1%

15.1%

Mike Trout might be the most valuable player in baseball but by OPS he’s not the best hitting center fielder on the Angels. By goodness he is, but not by OPS.

4

43

24

40.8

39.0

38.8

.567

.547

81.5%

16.3%

97.8%

1.3%

1.9%

Seven innings with no earned runs and Tim Hudson’s ERA is now down to 1.81. The takeaway here is you can go home again, as long as going home again means to recover from a pitching injury.

5

35

30

37.6

37.2

36.7

.559

.539

67.1%

11.6%

78.7%

-2.5%

11.8%

Denard Span has 19 doubles, four triples, and one homer, which I’m taking as code for his favorite arcade game.

6

34

32

34.7

37.5

37.0

.547

.527

38.9%

23.6%

62.5%

-0.3%

5.5%

There is a ‘Midwestern people are nice' joke in the Cardinals allowing the Rays to score after 31 innings but I’m not honestly sure it would be a joke.

7

34

28

31.6

32.4

31.9

.536

.556

67.7%

8.7%

76.4%

3.0%

-2.6%

The Tigers struck out 13 times and didn’t walk once. Max Scherzer is getting pretty careless with his powers.

8

39

29

37.4

35.6

35.3

.529

.549

54.8%

13.7%

68.5%

-3.1%

-9.7%

Brett Lawrie walked twice and will now have to present himself with the Brett Lawrie Is A Big Wuss For Not Swinging The Bat Enough Award in front of the mirror.

9

40

27

36.4

36.2

35.5

.524

.504

49.1%

24.9%

74.0%

4.7%

7.9%

Aramis Ramirez fell a triple shy of the cycle. Considering his last triple came in 2012, he might have done it had the game lasted about 1,800 more innings.

10

34

31

32.5

32.6

33.1

.508

.488

25.6%

22.8%

48.4%

-4.4%

-6.9%

Has anyone seen Tommy La Stella and Brock Holt in the same place at the same time, because, sure, they look nothing alike, but facts aside, they’ve just got to be the same person. They just gotta be!

11

30

36

30.5

31.5

31.1

.502

.522

7.4%

9.2%

16.7%

2.1%

-2.4%

The Red Sox lead baseball in receiving intentional walks. The Astros are last. The Astros have a winning percentage .001 higher. So yeah, nice stat, MLB.

12

34

32

36.0

33.2

33.8

.500

.520

3.3%

20.0%

23.3%

-4.9%

-7.0%

You wouldn’t eat at a combination Italian/Mexican restaurant, and yet someone let Macklemore throw out the first pitch of a baseball game.

13

34

31

29.8

29.0

29.5

.496

.516

23.8%

15.1%

38.9%

5.0%

11.3%

One year from now Derek Jeter will drive to the grocery store. He’ll come to a four-way stop, put on his left turn signal, and then he’ll go the other way.

14

32

34

31.4

32.9

33.7

.496

.476

6.2%

11.4%

17.6%

2.4%

-0.2%

The Pirates have more one-run wins and more one-run losses than any team so you know what they like (close games) and what they don’t like (counting).

15

31

35

34.7

36.2

34.1

.494

.474

0.3%

7.0%

7.2%

1.4%

-3.5%

In retrospect, a logo with a baseball flying over the Rocky Mountains maybe wasn’t the image a team with pitchers should try to project.

16

34

31

32.6

32.1

32.0

.493

.513

13.4%

14.1%

27.5%

3.5%

-3.8%

Kevin Gausman threw a gem, meaning for Baltimore the future is now, which also means the present was yesterday so looks like they missed their chance.

17

33

34

32.6

32.5

32.7

.490

.510

12.5%

10.2%

22.7%

-2.7%

-1.5%

There has been some second-guessing as the Indians didn’t intentionally walk David Ortiz and Ortiz hit a home run. Seems there should be a third option though.

18

25

42

27.6

31.2

31.8

.485

.505

0.7%

0.8%

1.4%

-0.3%

-1.8%

Is putting For Sale signs around players necks too tacky?

19

31

34

30.4

30.7

30.8

.481

.461

5.4%

9.5%

14.9%

2.6%

1.2%

The Reds are the oldest franchise in baseball so you’d think they’d be treated with more respect when they make their annual "cover all baseballs with spaghetti and chili" suggestion.

20

31

33

30.3

31.6

31.4

.478

.498

6.2%

5.8%

12.0%

-0.9%

2.8%

The Twins are just four games behind Detroit. This feels like we’ll look back in three months and say, “Remember when the Twins were just four games behind Detroit?” and laugh and laugh and then fly away on our jetpacks to see Mars play Jupiter in the Universe Series.

21

33

32

31.6

28.8

28.8

.473

.493

8.7%

6.9%

15.6%

0.7%

6.5%

If the committees that studied adding the DH back in the '60s could see the Royals now, they’d simply say, ‘what’s the point?’ and move on to finding a can opener to open their beer.

22

34

31

34.5

32.5

32.5

.465

.445

4.7%

6.7%

11.4%

-0.5%

-4.3%

Sure they lost to Yu Darvish but the Marlins got some hits and I really think this should be viewed positively.

23

33

34

31.9

31.3

30.8

.464

.484

4.8%

5.6%

10.4%

-1.7%

-2.8%

Last night some young fan attended his first White Sox game. The Sox had just three hits, were shut out, and the little fan was like, forget this. I’m rooting for a winner and a new Cubs fan was born.

24

26

38

30.3

31.7

31.3

.460

.440

0.4%

0.5%

0.9%

-0.3%

-1.2%

At 26-38, The Cubs have a winning record in just two splits: they are 8-5 against left handed pitchers and they are 26-0 when they win.

25

29

37

32.2

29.6

29.4

.459

.439

1.1%

1.6%

2.8%

-0.8%

-5.1%

If you look behind the M in the Mets logo there is a smaller building next to taller one. Look closely at the smaller one and you can see two guys on the eighth floor discussing a ponzi scheme.

26

32

34

29.1

26.9

27.9

.457

.477

0.5%

5.1%

5.6%

-1.0%

-7.3%

At first base the Rangers started Brad Snyder, who I’m pretty sure is Cory Snyder’s grandfather.

27

29

40

28.9

30.6

30.5

.455

.436

0.1%

1.7%

1.8%

-0.3%

-1.1%

Arizona is the best hitting team on Thursdays and the worst hitting team on Fridays in the National League. So you could view yesterday’s loss and today’s game against Clayton Kershaw as complementary reverse locks.

28

28

36

27.7

27.2

27.4

.452

.432

1.4%

1.6%

3.1%

0.5%

1.1%

The Phillies have won two in a row on hits from Reid Brignac. Sustainability is for wimps (and people who like sustainability)!

29

31

37

30.0

32.6

33.7

.450

.470

0.1%

1.8%

1.9%

0.2%

1.1%

Now that MLB has added Astros-like stars to all the All-Star hats, you shouldn’t be surprised if leading vote getters are sent to Triple-A if they won’t sign extensions.

30

28

38

26.0

24.3

24.7

.439

.420

0.1%

1.0%

1.1%

-0.3%

-8.5%

The Padres have scored 17 runs, the 30th in baseball in June and half as many as the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays are 25th.